As tomorrow is officially the start of Winter for us Aussies, I thought I'd get a head start on decorating for the season :D Autumn is actually my favourite seas, but a Queensland winter is like most normal places version of a mild Autumn lol... so what we have now, and maybe for the next couple of months, is pretty much Autumnlike weather. And I'm loving it! I actually saw a maple tree (not common) with it's gorgeous gold & orange leaves in various stages of falling from the tree. Todays high temp? a whopping 21C (which is about 69-70F) but for an acclimated Queenslander, if you're not in the sun you want a sweater on!

And if tomorrow is the first day of Winter.. then TODAY.. is my birthday! Yep, I celebrated another trip around the sun today. For surviving this year.. I was awarded a brand spanking new, shiny esspresso machine! (thanks Mum, Dad & Strider!) I was also given 24hours sans children by my MIL, from mid day Saturday to mid day Sunday. Bliss. I should make up some exciting adventurous tale for what I chose to do with my kid free time.. but alas, I'm boring. We came home through the CBD (city centre for non aussies) and grabbed sushi at one of my fave places, picked up some coffee beans to test out my birthday present and headed home. We played some WOW (as addicts will do ;) and watched 'Angels & Demons'.. love me some Dan Brown novels! Loved the movie too, Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors.

We stayed up very late, and slept in very late too! Imagine DH's surprise when he looked at the clock and it was 950am LOL... since he usually wakes up at 4am, this was QUITE a sleep in! The parents returned our kiddies after lunch, and the house we tidied up that morning, was promptly untidied. Life returns to normal ;)

***I'm so utterly behind with things I never posted a weekly wrap for last week... so I think I'm gonna say stuff it for the week! Be assured, we did school work and baked & had fun, and all of the other things we usually do!***

This week we are talking about our favourite subject to teach our kids, great topic :D  

I'd have to say that hands down, my favourite 'subject' to teach the boys is science.  The world and how things in it work and grow are totally fascinating to me.  The boys have endless excitement to learn about these things.  Now they love learning in general, but math & grammar just can't muster the excitement & passion in small boys that the inner workings of the natural world can!   Just tonight we were outside on the veranda, since it was a warmish evening (but cool enough for no bugs to pester us!), and Merry was all excited because he found a puff ball.  You know... those little round fungus thingies that release spores when you squish them.  That was investigated for ages. 

Then Frodo pointed out Venus, shining brightly in  the mostly darkened sky...and went on to look for Mars & Jupiter as well (not sure if we got those right.. must have a peek at google sky and see!)  

Then there was possum spotting (on the neighbors roof, thankfully, not ours lol... they're noisy little buggers!) and checking out the moth that was hanging out on the brick wall near the light.   All this scientific exploration, and we have a rather sterile and boring little tiny suburban backyard.

One of the reasons that science is my favourite, is that the internet makes SO much more available than ever before.  We don't have a telescope, but we can hop on google sky and it's almost like we do!  No microscope either (yet!), but there are up close images of slides of just about ANYTHING you can imagine online.   Then there are the local interactive things like the planetarium and science centre and nature reserves.  Endless possibilities.  

The looks of awe on their faces when we do an activity or experiment and they see the end results is just totally worth all the work.  

We've had a really busy week this week, and here are a few pics of our adventures :)   I'm not going to subject by subject it as detailed this week as.. well.. I was bored by the last one LOL.  

  

Our big focus this week was all things science.  Monday the boys had Professor Jellybean science class #2, where they made freaky goo Octopi/jellyfish/THINGS lol, as well as SNOW!  The real live fake snow type stuff that they use in movies and such.  

As you can see, it was a huge hit throughout the week at home too.  Must hose down the brick wall near the patio table.. it's slathered with glitter goo!

We also did a few experiements from the Real Science Odyssey.. Mapping Uranus & defining planets.  (the mapping was a demo of how scientists know what the surface of distant planets that are covered with thick clouds is like, defining planet was learning about how scientists determined that Pluto didn't REALLY fit into the planet category)  There's also a pic here of the 'Neptune is out of order' experiment.. but my swiss cheese brain cannot remember if that was this week or last lol.  

And no, Merry did not do that graphic... but he insisted on embellishing it throughout the week ;)  We also watched part of a documentary on space, but it was too involved so we're going to iView a better one on the net later :)   

We also spent time pottering in the garden and the boys are stoked with how well things are growing..Sam is biding his time very patiently until he can steal cherry tomatos off the vine LOL. (doesn't that silverbeet look NOM NOMNOM!?!? and spring onions are 1.89 a small bunch here.. so those babies are a goldmine of savings for me!)

 There was a bit of math in there... Sam is doing a fair bit better with his skip counting by 5s.  The secret was getting him hooked in.. all that took was a handful of 5c coins!  (he LOVES coins of any kind)   Frodo was a bit more motivated with it this week.  

Frodo read a chapter or two of his Knights of the Round Table, as well as a space book Sam got with something.  

We have been in the lessons of History Odyssey on Monks in the Christian church, and Islam the last couple of weeks... enthusiasm is low as religion is not my cup of tea.  I DO want my boys to have a basic understanding of other faiths though, so that they can be tolerant and accepting... not hateful & fearful as so many people are today.  So we soldier on.  But there have been a few questions about WHY the Muslims and Christians felt the need to war over simply believing different things.    

Other than that stuff, Frodo wrote another letter to his pen pal in the U.S.  The postal service ATE the last one :(   Sam did a couple of handwriting pages and practiced a bit more on unlined paper.  For some reason he does not like lines.. his letters refuse to have anything to DO with lines actually LOL .. ne'er the two shall meet.  

And back to science hehe.. we finally got around to picking up new binders (read swiss cheese brained mum forgot) and the boys are now decking them out so we can fill them up with this years stuff.  (I say this year because since our registration changed, we are technically starting our home ed year now) 

There was also a LOT of outside time for physical activity, plus gymnastics classes on Monday and swim class on Sunday.  I've been dragging the boys outside after our formal work around 11am, even though they would much rather nag me to play on the wii.  They still manage to have fun ;)  

Art this week was finishing up their castle drawings, and in class they used shapes to draw a birdhouse and then painted it.   Frodo rather enjoyed the castle drawing more than the birdhouse lol.

 And now, Friday!  We had a celebratory 'snacky lunch' (which is rolled ham, cheese wedges, crackers, grape tomatos and cucumber slices with dip and mandarin sections)  and I have been named mum of the year.. or at least day, as I am making their fave friday fried rice and yum cha!